After the 16th Amendment was ratified, an income tax was imposed starting in 1913 with rates ranging from 1 percent to 7 percent with the top rate applying only to incomes in excess of $500,000. . . . . The top rate exceeded 90 percent at its peak in the early 1950s. The first 1040 form — instructions and all — took up only four pages. Today there are some 4,000 pages of tax forms and instructions.
. . . . The IRS now has more enforcement personnel than the EPA, BATF, OSHA, FDA, and DEA combined. With its 115,000-man workforce, it has the power to search the property and financial documents of American citizens without a search warrant and to seize property from American citizens without a trial. It routinely does both.
. . . . the total cost to collect our federal taxes, including the effects on the economy as a whole adds up to an amazing 65 percent of all the tax dollars received annually.
. . . . IRS telephone information service has . . . given about one-third of all callers . . . the wrong answers to their questions. A 1987 General Accounting Office study found that 47 percent of a random sample of IRS correspondence — including demands for payments — contained errors. . . . a GAO audit of the IRS in 1993 found widespread evidence of financial malfeasance and gross negligence at the agency. The IRS could not account for 64 percent of its congressional appropriation!
They are the government and are here to help.
Blithe Spirit 
Maine’s income tax was introduced in 1969 with a top rate of 6% on the the Rich. By 2010 the top marginal rate was 8.45% on incomes above $19,000.
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Gummint voracious beast. Feed me as in the musical’s plant, it says. Figures aside, the people get goodies, if not their or others’ money’s worth, and gummint workers, high to low, get votes and wages. Tough beast to tame, but we can do it, putting shoulders to wheel, etc.
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